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George Dantzig, 1914-2005

Posted by timothy on from the life-well-lived dept.

Markus Registrada writes "George Dantzig, the inventor of the Simplex method for solving Linear Programming problems, died on May 13. He was also the now-legendary student who turned in solutions for what he had taken to be a homework assignment, only to find out they had been posted as examples of what were suspected to be unsolvable problems."

7 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. I've been enlightened! by Bifurcati · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now this is why I read Slashdot - where else can you get such a diverse range of people, and pick up wonderful little tidbits like the true story behind that wonderful legend about solving unsolved problems? Sure, it's available on Snopes for you to find if you know what you're looking for, but asking the right question is often a lot harder than the answer, as best illustrated bythe Hitch Hiker's guide: Meaning of life=42, Question=???. (Hey, perhaps if they'd put that up on the board, he might have been able to solve that as well!)

    --

    Physicist, consultant, science communicator
    1. Re:I've been enlightened! by papaia · · Score: 3, Insightful
      "...where else can you get such a diverse range of people, and pick up wonderful little tidbits like the true story behind that wonderful legend about solving unsolved problems?..."

      As long as Rush Limbaugh hasn't succeeded in brain-washing all the Americans, some of them may still have a chance to find such tidbits here
      --
      == With enough Will Power, one could move mountains. With enough Brains, one would just leave them where they are ==
  2. Re:So sad. by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And we certainly had no idea what you were talking about.

    Yes, that is the sad part. Not for him, mind you.

    KFG

  3. Re:Genius, ha by unixbum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a well known fact that intelligence is inversely proportional to common sence.

  4. Re:I hope Paul Erdos is right. by mcg1969 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually I figure that mathematicians in Hell probably get to see it as well, so they can be tormented by the knowledge of just how inelegant their proofs were.

  5. Re:A new way of teaching? by Catullus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. While there are, of course, many bad teachers, there are also many who encourage creative thinking and reward originality.

    "P=NP?" and many other important problems in theoretical computer science are also perfect examples of problems that could be solved by someone working on their own, without even needing much input from a university. The reason that they haven't been solved so far is that they're hard - not because teachers have been "trampling creative geniuses down into the mud".

    Scientists (usually) do science because they want to discover new, exciting and creative things - not because they want to suppress independent thought.

    I'm also kind of amused by your claim that you'd have achieved as much as George Dantzig if you hadn't given in to all that "social conditioning" thrust upon you.

  6. Re:Unsolvable geek problems. by halleluja · · Score: 5, Insightful
    How to get a date?

    Just ask.